Cops say arrest thwarted terror attack

GODFREY — A Godfrey teen is behind bars after authorities say he communicated with a terrorist organization to plan an attack in Madison County.

The accused man’s grandmother, however, says he was not provided treatment for mental illness.

Keaun Cook, 18, has a history of mental illness and spent time in the Madison County Juvenile Detention Center, his grandmother, Debra Thomas, said following the arrest.

Madison County Sheriff John Lakin and State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, however, said Cook is a dangerous man who had deliberate and real plans for carnage.

Gibbons said Cook was in contact with a terrorist organization, although he wouldn’t specify which, and said he was planning a “mass-casualty incident at one or more local venues” in Madison County. Gibbons declined to disclose specific locations targeted, although he said authorities became aware of the threat Aug. 24 when they responded to a call for a welfare check at a house in the 1300 block of Sir Galahad Lane in Godfrey.

Cook was charged with two felonies — one of making a terrorist threat and one of material support for terrorism. Material support for terrorism is punishable by up to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and making a terrorist threat is punishable up to 30 years, Gibbons said.

“He knowingly provided material support or resources with the intention that that material support or resources would be used in the support of a terrorist act by a terrorist organization,” Gibbons said. “He expressed his intention that such a terrorist act would occur.”

The sheriff stressed the dire nature of the situation multiple times and said residents are safe because Cook is behind bars, although an investigation is ongoing. Gibbons said Cook appeared to be working on his own with the organization and there appears to be no one else in the area connected to the plan.

Police departments and individuals at the threatened locations were notified after the threat was reported, Gibbons said.

After deputies arrested Cook on Wednesday, he was taken to the Madison County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail. No physical materials related to a terrorist attack were found at the residence, Lakin said.

Cook lived with his grandmother in their Godfrey home, Thomas said. In June, The [Alton] Telegraph reported that Thomas was struggling with how difficult it is for youths to obtain needed mental health services. She was granted custody of the youth after his mother died in 2011.

Thomas said her grandson “had already spent over 300 days” in isolated confinement in a Madison County Detention Center in the past. She wrote that he would “sit and talk to himself” as though he was having a conversation with someone while in confinement.

After her grandson returned home from detention, Thomas said she called the police “not because that I felt a threat, but because I knew that was the only way that I could get Keaun treatment,” Thomas said. Because Cook is 18, Thomas said she could not legally force him to take medication to treat schizophrenia.

“When he’s on his medicine, he is the sweetest person you know; when off, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Thomas said. “Had I known my trying to get help for him would cost him to be in jail, I would never [have called] the police.”

Thomas said her grandson was off his medication and was paranoid that his phone and their house was “bugged.”

“With Keaun’s mental state, I don’t understand how come the Detention Center did not pick up on that something was wrong,” Thomas said. “My thought [is] they didn’t care because he had been in [and] out since the death of his mother in 2011.”

Gibbons declined to comment on Cook’s mental state, saying, “I can’t comment on his condition. That’s certainly something that if there is something of that nature, that can be raised by his defense attorney.”

During a news conference, the sheriff said Cook represented a threat to the community.

“This is certainly not a situation where we were tracking down a burglar or a vehicle burglar or somebody who had robbed a convenience store,” Lakin said. “I’m very proud to stand here today and say that we stopped an event that could have caused a very, very, very serious situation. This is not something that’s unique to the Midwest. This is not something that’s unique to Illinois. This was being planned right here in Madison County.”

“This is a circumstance where there is absolutely no room for error and no room for delay, and the sheriff’s office acted immediately,” Gibbons said.